We are one week away from the beginning of the national testing. After bank holiday Monday, the testing will begin on Tuesday 5th May and we will be having our reading test and our procedural maths test during the first two days of the window, so it is important that all of the children are present in school on 5th and 6th May. Our reasoning test will take place on the following Monday - 13th May.
Literacy: This week we will be mainly focussing on comprehension strategies and looking at exam style questioning but we will also write a letter and an argumentative point of view. I will also build upon our debating last week and choose some controversial issues to discuss in class. I would also like the children to begin preparing a five-minute presentation to share with the class that will go towards their oracy assessment. (See bottom of blog for details of this)
Mathematics: We will be looking at both procedural and reasoning skills in the build-up to the tests. In our maths sessions, our main focus will be on fractions, decimals and percentages and how the three link together. Also how to find fractions of whole quantities and other problem-solving techniques
PE - I have to check a few things in the diary but will confirm the PE day with the children when I know.
Oracy Presentations - I will share these instructions on HWB and also send an attachment via Schoop as well. The presentations will begin the week beginning 16th May and I will devise a timetable with the children this week:
Year 6 Oracy Presentation Summer 2016:
I would like you to prepare a 5-minute presentation to present to the rest of the class. The presentation can be about any hobby or an interest of yours from outside of school. Try and pick something that you already know a bit about and could use that knowledge to create a superb presentation for your peers. If you can’t think of anything that you would like to talk about perhaps choose an animal or a famous place.
This is a chance to demonstrate your oracy skills, so here are some tips to help you perfect your talk:
· You will need to talk confidently and clearly and engage the interest of the listeners by varying your expression and vocabulary.
· Develop your talk purposefully and when expressing your opinions provide reasons to support your views.
You will be expected to evaluate and reflect on each other’s presentations also:
· Demonstrate that you are able to evaluate talk and understand how changes in vocabulary and style can improve its quality.
· Pay close attention to what others say: To do this you will need to ask questions to develop ideas and then make contributions that take account of other people's views.
The presentation will be limited to 5 minutes and it will be timed on a stopwatch. Practice with a parent, sibling or friend if your presentation is too short try to add a bit more, if it is too long reduce it.
You may use PowerPoint to support your talk, to help with visual aids, or use any other form of visual aid. Remember you have free access to PowerPoint on Office 365 when logged into your HWB account. However if you choose to use visual media text should be limited and you should be talking to the class, using titles or captions to help remind you of the section you are talking about, but making sure you keep talking to the audience – not talking to the board. I have experienced excellent presentations both with the use of PowerPoint and without.
If possible try to begin preparing / researching ideas for your presentations over the bank holiday as I will be asking children to begin presenting on the week beginning Monday 16th May and the last presentation will take place on Wednesday 25th May. I will let the children know the finalised timetable by the end of the week so that they know when they need to prepare their individual presentation.
If you have any queries regarding the presentations please let me know.
Diolch,
Mr Ball
